St. Joseph's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Chennamkary

St. Joseph's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Chennamkary, Kerala
Chennamkary St.Joseph's Syro-Malabar church.
Basic information
Location	Chennamkary, Alappuzha, Kerala, India
Geographic coordinates	9°27′22″N 76°23′54″E / 9.45611°N 76.39833°E / 9.45611; 76.39833Coordinates: 9°27′22″N 76°23′54″E / 9.45611°N 76.39833°E / 9.45611; 76.39833
Affiliation	Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
District	Alappuzha District
Year consecrated	AD 977
Website	[1]

Chennamkary St.Joseph's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is a Catholic church in Kerala. It belongs to the Syro-Malabar Church under the archeparchy of Changanacherry. It is the first church in Asia dedicated to Saint Joseph

St. Thomas the Apostle landed in lush green Kerala which is lying between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats on the extreme end of India in 52 A.D. St. Thomas founded a Christian community which extended throughout Kerala by baptizing many people. It is popularly believed that as the community grew up, 7 churches namely, Maliankara, Palayoor, Paravoor (Kottakayal), Kokamangalam, Niranam, Chayal (Nilackal),Kollam and a half completed church at Thiruvankodu which were called ‘ezharapallika’l, were founded. Of these, Niranam situated close to the sea was very prominent. Christians from Niranam and Kuravilangadu and its neighbourhood immigrated to the present Kuttanadu which was abounded with kandal forests in those days-later this area was converted into fertile paddy fields-.Most of the immigrant Christians settled in Kalloorkadu area. They had to depend on the distant Niranam church for worship. As it had been extremely difficult to travel to Niranam, the faithful of Kalloorkadu erected a church in the locality in 427 A.D,Some 550 years passed by. In the meantime more and more Christians had immigrated to different parts of Kuttanadu. The Christians who had been living in scattered settlements in and around Chennamkary found it extremely hard to depend on Kalloorkadu church for worship. Therefore, the elders of 11 powerful families of Chennamkary, Nedumudi and Kainakari areas met and decided to erect a church in Chennamkary. After getting the required sanction from political and church authorities, a church was erected in Chennamkary with the united effort of the faithful on 1 August 977 A.D. Though it is not known for certain what materials were used for the construction of the church, it is generally believed that it was built with palm leaf and bamboo. Later in 1201, the main portion of the church was renovated with stone and lime mortar. The wings in the south and north were built in 1300.Later the southern wing was pulled apart to construct the cemetery. Prior to the construction of the cemetery, the dead were buried in different parts of the church yard. The ‘mondalam’(roof) was constructed in 1601. Chennamkary had been included in the list of churches under the jurisdiction of Varapuzha Diocese published in 1786 which is entered in the History of Indian Church written by Rev.Fr. Xavier Koodapuzha. No other document about the history of Chennamkary church between 1800 and the famous Coonan cross Oath of 1653 is available.